This invention relates generally to a method for forming vessels having pouring spouts, and is a particularly suitable method for forming cookware having pouring spouts adapted to allow the transferring of liquids, sauces, and other foods contained within the cookware.
Because the disclosed invention is a particularly suitable method for cookware, the invention will be disclosed in relation to that exemplary application. However, it should be noted that the invention is not specifically limited to that application, as it is an applicable method for vessels other than those intended for kitchen or domestic use.
Cooking vessels used for heating and cooking liquids of varying viscosities containing a wide range of relatively solid food particles suspended therein are in daily use throughout the world. Upon completion of heating the contents of the vessel, it is frequently desirable to precisely control the rate and direction of flow of the contents into another vessel for additional preparation, cooling, storing, serving, or disposal. Additionally, when cooking meat products wherein fat is rendered, or liquified fat or oil is used as a cooking medium, it is common to pour the excess fat or oil into another vessel for future use or disposal.
The prior art is replete with vessels having pour spouts to aid in the transferring of the contents of a first vessel into a second receiving vessel. However, prior art vessels share a common shortcoming in that when the contents are poured out of the first vessel, the resulting stream is not geometrically constant and tends to exit the vessel at varying rates. For example, the contents of the vessel would lap the outside of the vessel if the pouring rate was too slow, and conversely, if the pouring rate was too fast, the contents would exit the vessel in a non-uniform, waterfall-like geometry resulting in poor directional and flow rate control. Such stream characteristics resulted in undesired dripping, spillage, and possibly over filling the receiving vessel. The spillage and dripping occurring from the lack of control when pouring contents out of a vessel not only constitutes an inconvenience to the user, but in some extreme cases may provide a hazard to an inattentive user when transferring hot oil or fats.
Thus, there was need for vessels having a pouring spout that provides a uniform geometric flow pattern regardless of the particular pouring rate of the contents exiting the vessel.
Originally, the unique pour spout vessels were manufactured from aluminum, however, because of the success of the product a demand for similar products made of stainless steel was created. A forming problem was encountered immediately because the vessel pour spout shaping process conventionally utilized for stainless steel, i.e., straight pressing, caused too much downward force in the steel resulting buckling of the metal. A roller type process was investigated, but without success, because, this process again caused too much downward force and subsequent buckling of the stainless steel material. Therefore, a process for forming these unique pour spouts in stainless steel needed to be developed. It is this problem to which the invention disclosed herein is directed.